Reflections Photographing Jewellery On Black Acrylic

<p>Hi All,<br /> This is my first ever post on the net, yay for me!!<br /> I am required to take good quality photos of jewellery so 5 days ago I went out and bought a Nikon D5200 and a medalight light box (2nd Hand) and have since been taking photos. Lots and lots of photos. My problem is when I place the jewellery on solid black acrylic or black tinted acrylic I get this horrible reflection projecting onto the underside & front of the jewellery. I have searched the net for the last two nights but have not been able to remedy it. White acrylic I have no problems. I know it's a simple fix but it's just gone over my head so far. I installed Adobe Photoshop CS6 extended today and after 6 hours of 'you tube' crash courses I was able to lighten the shadow but not remove it completely. I need to have completed 300 photos by this weekend so I am feeling the pressure. After finding this website tonight I have read through some forums and taken some good advice and just bought 'Light- Science and Magic' on ebay only 20 minutes ago. I am looking for a fix\solution asap. My light box has a front, rear and bottom light and are CCFL tubes 5000K. The bottom one is broken and the replacement is weeks away (could that be causing the problem?) And do I need one of those macro light ring thingies?? Any advice would be most appreciated. I have uploaded a pic that has been untouched to example my problem. I know it's a common problem, but you'd laugh if you knew how much time I spent in the last few days trying to get rid of it.<br /> Be kind, I am as raw as they come, but trying hard :-) Thanks in advance<img src="/bboard//i1360.photobucket.com/albums/r654/ddu/PhotoNetExample_zpsa113c235.jpg" alt="" /></p><div></div>

<p>[[i get this horrible shadow projecting on the underside & front of the jewellery.]]</p>

<p>Are you talking about the <strong>reflection</strong>? </p>

<p>Yes</p>

<p>Maybe you're going about this the wrong way from the start. The main reason to use black acrylic is to create a reflection. If you don't want that, you should be using a matte surface instead. <br /><br />Otherwise, consider suspending the ring above the surface by a few inches (monofilament, etc - which you can easily 'shop out of the results). Having it above the surface means that the reflection will be "lower," and can disappear from the composition.</p>

<p>Yes, something like black velvet if you don't want the reflections.</p>

<p>Mirror-like surfaces reflect. This shouldn't be surprising. Before getting into more complex solutions, how about just switching to something that is not reflective, like a dark fabric?</p>

<p>Mat, are you saying you want the underside of the ring to be well lit, but you want to preserve the reflection of the ring on the acrylic?</p>

<p>Yes Mark, <strong>'I want the underside of the ring to be well lit, but I want to preserve the reflection of the ring on the acrylic'. </strong>Sorry my incorrect terminology has confused everyone</p>

<p>It's 3:20am where I am. Not my finest worded question :-)</p>

<p>You can't have both. The ring is reflective, so it's going to reflect anything it's on, whether or not the surface is reflective.<br>

I suggest you buy and read "Light - Science & Magic" by Hunter, Fils, Fuqua, et. al. It teaches about "the family of angles" that is causing this problem.<br>

Matt's suggestion is best, suspend the ring above the surface and light it separately from below.<br>

<Chas></p>

<p>Yeah I've hear the book is good. I bought it earlier tonight on eBay, Thanks Charles. Thanks Matt also, I'll put that on the list of things to try.</p>

"...I get this horrible reflection projecting onto the underside & front of the jewellery."

 

So you want the reflection but want it to look nice and bright. The top half of the actual ring looks gold but the bottom half of the actual ring looks brown. That bottom brown half is what is reflected on the acrylic. How to light the bottom half of the ring so it matches the top half of the ring as it sits on the acrylic is the problem. I hope I have clarified that correctly.

 

Right now it looks like the light source is on top of the ring. Lowering the light sources or adding additional light sources to cast light on the lower half of the ring should help.

 

It also looks as if the black acrylic darkens the reflection; it is not the same bright reflection that one would get if the ring were placed on a highly reflective mirror.

I don't like to offer suggestions unless I have actually done what I would suggest. Right now I don't have the time to try what I am about to suggest but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

 

Place the ring on a small mirror. Light it as you would like. Hang a black cloth in the background so it is fully reflected in the mirror. You now have the ring reflected in the mirror and the black background reflected under that. That should make the ring look like it is sitting on a shiny black surface not like the dark gray that you have in the photo above.

Okay I had time to arrange a quick and dirty set up. Outdoor light and black sweater for background reflected in hand mirror:

 

<center><img src="http://jdainis.com/ring_acrylic2.jpg"><P>

 

<img src="http://jdainis.com/ring_acrylic.jpg"></center>

 

The sweater was held behind and angled slightly over at the same angle as the camera. The results would be much better with proper directional lighting and no need to try to hold the backdrop with one hand and try to compose and shoot with the camera in the other hand..

<p>The difficulty with Jame's approach is that a conventional mirror is 2nd surface, so there are two reflections of the item, one from each surface of the glass.<br>

<Chas></p>

<p>Hi James,<br>

Really appreciate the time and effort. I'm definitely giving this idea a go. It looks promising. Charles point taken also. I'll see what I can come up with. Will let you all know how successful I am with this.</p>

Charles, you have a point. I can see a refection on the glass or ghost image at the very bottom of the stone reflected in the mirror. There is also a small ghost image above the ring circle behind the mount. Using a polarizing filter eliminated the ghost images. No pictures, I just looked through the polarizing filter to see that the ghost images were indeed eliminated. They could also be easily eliminated in Photoshop.<P>

 

Having the reflected ring look as bright as the ring itself looks like there are two rings balanced on top of each other. Using Arcsoft PhotoStudio, selecting Spray Paint, color black and 10% opacity, I darkened in the lower reflected ring. That took less than a minute. I think that looks better, more like a reflection on a shiny black surface: <P>

 

<center><img src="http://jdainis.com/ring_acrylic_dark.jpg"></center>

<p>The essence of reflections is that surfaces reflect what they see .... so in this case the ring is seeing the black acrylic. I wonder if by supporting the ring on a sheet of clear glass on top of the black acrillic you would get the double image you want and then removing the black acryllic and having a white beneath the glass you would not get the dark reflection. It is then a matter of using the non shadow ring with the reflection in the black cryllic a separation done in editing using the two photos in layers.<br>

But since I have never tried this sort of thing it is just a guesstimate on my part. Based on your comment that there is no dark reflection when you use white acryllic which gives you a light reflection.<br>

Having solved that problem the next is the dark top surface of the reflection and here I suggest a hole in the black acryllic matching the ring diameter with a light shining through it to light the underside of the ring which in turn gives a lighter reflection in the BA.<br>

Another idea comes to mind ... I wonder if your light tent is giving you a top light and little side and lower light and I think you will find in Light--Science and Magic an example of where the item is supported on something small so that light can be shone on it from low down and the dasrk shadow is reduced to just a narrow band instead of the broad band you have shown us.<br>

My thought to use your light tent is that the ring is positioned on a small piece of black acryllic on a pedestal so the ring is lit from 'all around' instead of just top and sides as your photo.</p>

<p>Some good ones there JC. And James again. I will be trying every method mentioned until I hit the right one for me. Will post my results (this weekend)</p>